


Love on a plane

by QueenXIV



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit RPF
Genre: Adults acting like dumb teenagers, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But they are still actors, Lee is not, M/M, Richard is shy, They are not movie actors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 04:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7670875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenXIV/pseuds/QueenXIV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finding love on a plane, yeah, right. That only happened in stupid teenage movies, right?</p><p>This story is posted for the Richard Armitage Birthday Challenge in Tumblr and AO3!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love on a plane

**Author's Note:**

> Helloooo ladies and gentlemen. So here, with my second Richlee fanfic, but this one I've made it especially for the RA birthday challenge, which I signed up for on tumblr cause, you know, I've never participated in such things and I wanted to give it a try! 
> 
> BTW! in my AUs Richard is always very shy and Lee is the happy-go-lucky one and the most extroverted cause that's just how I see it, I dunno. I think Lee must be kinda shy too, but for the sake of the story, one of them had to be talkative. 
> 
> So, the plane ride is the exact same one I took last month when I went to New Zealand (yeeeesh, I went to hobbiton), but I did Barcelona - Singapore, which was freaking 13 hours long, gosh, and then Singapore-Auckland which was only 8 hours (only duh), so yeah, the timing is accurate. The return journey was much worse: christchurch (NZ) to Sidney 3 hours, then Sidney to Dubai fucking 14 hours and then 7 more hours Dubai to Barcelona. I died, literally, like, I was ill, I had a really bad cold and gosh, horrible but oh well, the price you gotta pay to go to the other side of the earth XD I know nobody cares about that but well, just so you know, I am not making things up. Except the love part, I found no Richard beside me. Only lovely people 
> 
> Enjoy please!

I nodded and smiled at the stewardess as she handed me back my plane ticket and made my way towards my economy class seat, dodging people who were trying to put away their suitcases. It was not like I had ever been in business class or first class in a plane, but I could almost feel the comfortableness of their seats as I passed through business class to get to economy class. The children were louder there, and the people more cramped. Three vertical rows with infinite horizontal rows of seats. Luckily I was seated on 65A, and that meant window. True, I would only be able to see the wing of the plane but still I would be able to lean on the window to sleep. That was always a plus when the plane journey was long as fuck.

I sat down putting my bag under the seat in front of me and sighed, getting my blanket and pillow ready. 8 hours of agony awaited me, and the dreariness of it alone could almost dampen my good mood of finally visiting a country I had been hoping to visit for so long. New Zealand, almost a dream come true. Lots of bad plays and awful directors had to be endured to be able to pay for the trip but I was sure it would be worth it. 

I felt someone sit beside me and I sneaked a quick view from the corner of my eye. He was older than me, with a rough stubble and neatly cut dark brown hair. His long nose was turned upwards as he closed his eyes and sighed deeply, a box of pills tightly clutched in his fist. He looked so English that I could almost hear God Save the Queen. As I was naturally friendly and we had to spend 8 hours together I thought it was a good idea to introduce myself. 

“Hi, Lee, here.” I said with a smile. He startled and then looked at me with impossibly blue eyes. He took a breath and smiled a bit forcefully. 

“Richard, nice to meet you.” Yep, certainly English. I smiled politely and he just returned the same tight smile and closed his eyes again, tensely leaning on his seat. He didn’t seem very excited, he looked pretty afraid. Oh, so that was it; the guy was afraid of flying. 

His rumpled clothes told me that he had already been on a flight before that one, so the poor guy had probably suffered enough already on the plane from London to Singapore. I glanced at the pills he was tightly clutching and registered them as sleeping pills. Hah, at least he was not motion sick, that would have been quite disgusting for the both of us. 

Minutes before departing the whole plane was filled and soon the plane was speeding to take off. As I was quite used to planes, being quite a traveller, I glanced around me to see other people’s reactions. The guy on the same row that has the seat by the aisle was reading a book with his earphones on, the music blasting off them even over the humming of the plane’s engine. 

Richard, on the other hand, was gripping the armrest tightly, the pills still tight on his feet and his nostrils were flared, his eyes scrunched tightly. When the plane was already on the air but still going up, Richard shakily took two pills and took a swig from a bottle of water, gulping the pills down. 

“Not a fan of planes?” I joked, with a tight smile. He looked at me surprisingly and smiled softly, more relaxed than before. 

“Not at all, I hate flying.” He put away his pills and took out a book. The Hobbit. He was just getting cooler and more handsome by the moment. 

“Oh, you like it?” I asked. 

“What?”

“The Hobbit.” 

“Ah, oh, yeah. I love it. It’s like… I don’t know, the hundredth time I’ve read it.” He said, brandishing the book around. He was still shaky from take off, but the pills seemed to be taking effect. 

“I really like it too. Tolkien in general. Never got around reading The Silmarillion though, I’ve been told it’s quite hard to read.” 

“Oh, yeah.” He chuckled. “Took me longer than any other book, but it was worth it, in my opinion.”

“Maybe I’ll give it a shot then.” 

We spent another good ten minutes in silence, as I browsed through the movies available, but the guy beside me seemed way more interesting (and attractive, damn, how did I not notice the width of his shoulders or his sensual lips?). I turned to him, checking if he was still awake. 

“So, where are you from?” I asked. He raised the eyes from his book, with raised eyebrows. “Oh, sorry, I don’t want to bother you.”

“No, no, it’s okay. Easier for me to talk through the whole… Ordeal. Or else… I will just think of the millions ways to die up here.” 

“Millions? Wow.”

“I can get pretty creative in these situations.” We both chuckled. “I’m from England, by the way.” 

“Oh! How nice. I love London, and Bristol and well, England. Pretty nice all in all.” He chuckled at my rambling and nodded. 

“Yeah, nice, except for the weather I guess. How… How about you? Where are you from?” He seemed a bit hesitant before asking me the question. It looked like the guy was probably not used to talking to strangers. But damn me if I would let an opportunity to chat a hot guy up. Especially one that was stuck with me for damn 13 hours. 

“I’m from the States but ah, I was actually in Dubai before coming here so yeah, I am not a crazy guy taking the longest route to get to New Zealand.”

“Quite long it would be, yes. So, Dubai, wow. Is it nice there? Pretty hot, I’ve heard.”

“Oh yes, I do like it, very much. But I lived there when I was younger so, well, nothing new for me. You did London to Singapore?”

“Yes, and now Singapore to Auckland, my final destination, I guess yours too?”

“You guessed right. I can’t wait to arrive actually.”

“Neither can I, but only to get off this bloody plane.” He sighed, his back still a bit tense. 

“Don’t worry, as you said, I will talk you through the whole ordeal.” I said with a wink. He actually, no joke, blushed and smiled a bit. Damn, a shy one, jack-pot! “So, if it’s not too personal, why are you going to Auckland?”

“Oh, I’m actually on a play there, but I decided to go earlier than the rest of the cast to just… See the country. I’ve been told it’s beautiful, if the Lord of the Rings films are anything to go by.” 

“Oh! An actor then? I am an actor too! Not so lucky as to be able to be in a play in New Zealand but still, it got me a journey here, so, not so bad. I am actually just here to play the tourist. Can’t wait to see all the LOTR landscapes.” 

We basically spent the next hour fangirling over LOTR and Tolkien until the pills did take effect and Richard dozed off, leaving me alone. I did stare at him for a few minutes, but I did eventually slip into dreamland. Thankfully the plane ride seemed much shorter with a long restful sleep and Richard to talk too. The guy was very quite and shy in his way, but very interesting. 

As the plane landed, I mustered enough courage to ask for his number when he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from his journal and passed it to me. His cheeks were red, he was blushing like crazy and he did stammer a bit, nervous from the landing and probably the asking too. 

“I had a nice time with you, actually, the nicest time I’ve ever had on a plane so… If… If you don’t mind I would really like to see you again, maybe? In Auckland. Of course, if you can’t I will totally understand but…”

I chuckled at his nervousness, but my heart was beating like crazy. I tried to play it cool though and I grabbed the piece of paper and scrabbled my number and my whole name there, passing it to him afterwards. He smiled at me as he took it. 

“I had a really nice time too. And I hope we meet in Auckland, and maybe I get to see your play?” 

“That’d be nice.” 

The guy was older than me, decidedly and he seemed way more mature in character than he really was, but then again, so was I, and absolutely wouldn’t mind going on a date with him any time soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comment so I know what you think!


End file.
